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Technology has made today’s vehicles the safest in history. Similarly, advancements in engine technology have made today’s vehicles the most fuel efficient. While technology is making vehicles last longer and be more environmentally friendly, it is also making them increasingly complex. Today’s connected vehicles can have as many as 50 to 100 embedded microprocessors, depending on the model, using up to 300 million lines of software code; compare this to a 747 jumbo jet, with only 75 million lines of code.

This complexity is introducing vulnerabilities that never before existed. Nearly 100 percent of vehicles on the market include wireless technologies that could pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions. As vehicles continue to become more integrated with wireless technologies, there are more avenues through which a hacker can introduce malicious code, and more avenues through which a driver’s basic right to privacy can be compromised. These wireless technologies require wireless entry points (WEPs) or ways that vehicle electronics can be accessed remotely, ranging from tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) to access via the OBD II port.

Dawn of a New Era

A watershed moment occurred in the automotive industry July 21, 2015, when Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a first-of-its-kind bill S.1806 — the Security and Privacy in Your Car Act of 2015 (generically known as the SPY Car Act). The bill would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish minimum federal standards and safeguards to protect the data, security, and privacy of drivers. In addition, NHTSA must conduct a rulemaking to require the fuel economy labeling that manufacturers attach to motor vehicles to display a “cyber dashboard” with a standardized graphic to inform consumers about the extent to which the vehicle protects individuals' cybersecurity and privacy beyond the minimum requirements. The bill, which is currently being reviewed by the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee of the U.S. Senate, was in reaction to the much publicized hacking of a Jeep Cherokee via the SUV’s Internet-connected radio head unit, which, following this incident, was fixed by FCA.

The emerging debate around vehicle security promises to intensify. At least one lawsuit has already been filed against three automakers. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges the automobiles are open to hackers who can take control of critical vehicle functions and endanger the safety of the driver and passengers. The suit claims that vehicles without proper electronics safeguards are “defective” and worth far less than similar, non-defective vehicles and seeks unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief.

Industry Dialogue and Consensus Needed

The SPY Car Act bill directs NHTSA to conduct a rulemaking to issue motor vehicle cybersecurity regulations to protect against unauthorized access to electronic controls or driving data. The regulations must require vehicles with accessible data or control signals to be capable of detecting, reporting, and stopping attempts to intercept such driving data or control the vehicle.

One countermeasure would incorporate isolation procedures to separate “critical software systems” from “noncritical software systems.” The legislation describes critical software systems as “software systems that can affect the driver’s control of the vehicle movement.” Another countermeasure, known as “security through obscurity,” would be to limit access to entry points, such as the OBD II port. Opponents point out that this will do little to harden the system against attack and will reduce consumer choice, undermining current safety and environmental compliance programs. They instead argue that an open design principle is a better solution, since it will allow new technological innovations to help secure vehicle data.

In the final analysis, a balance must be reached to ensure continued fleet access to OBD data without compromising privacy and security. Access to vehicle data via OBD II ports allows companies to improve fleet safety by identifying drivers who need training and monitoring. In addition, direct access to vehicle data via an OBD II port will streamline regulatory compliance reporting and provide an auditable trail to ensure compliance. This direct access provides a full and rich vehicle set versus other restricted vehicle data access methods. Since an OBD port is universal, it will ensure that safety monitoring programs and regulatory compliance can be implemented across the entire fleet, regardless of vehicle brand.

There are a number of stakeholders in the “OBD ecosystem.” In addition to government regulators and automotive OEMs, important OBD stakeholders include fleet managers, fleet management companies, aftermarket suppliers, and industry associations. An industry dialogue needs to commence to allow all OBD stakeholders provide input.

The recent U.S tax law changes created a problem for employers who use a non-accountable vehicle reimbursement plan. Negative feedback has some companies reconsidering the viability of offering company-provided vehicles to help key employees mitigate the adverse impact of eliminated tax deduction.

A truck’s total cost of ownership (TCO) covers a specific range of expense variables, regardless of the make or model. The four lifecycle categories that influence TCO are fixed costs, operating expenses, incidental costs, and depreciation/resale value. A key factor that drives these lifecycle categories is a vehicle’s service life.

Most in procurement take the position that fleet’s primary responsibility is to buy assets and services, which annually can range from millions to tens of millions of dollars in expenditures. This amount of corporate spend requires it be managed by someone with superb negotiation skills and proven procurement acumen.

If you want to provide added value to your company, you need to view fleet as a business and not simply an aggregation of assets to be managed cost-effectively. The fastest way to improve your bottom line is to increase fleet utilization, which increases the productivity of each individual truck.

Blog: Vocational trucks are susceptible to being targeted for staged accidents, which involves maneuvering an unsuspecting employee driver into an intentional crash in order to make a false insurance claim or to file a lawsuit against the driver’s employer.

If you think being a fleet manager is stressful, try being a Navy SEAL. Former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill, best known for claiming to have shot Osama bin Laden, recently wrote a new book entitled, “The Operator.”

Conventional wisdom in the fleet market is often wrong. If we roll back the calendar, the conventional wisdom about fuel prices was that there would be ebbs and flows in price per gallon rates, but the overall price trajectory would trend upward. The flaw with conventional wisdom is that it only works when no new variables are inserted into future projections. A case in point is the shale oil revolution, which now has experts predicting oil prices will remain flat for the foreseeable future.

Summer is a busy time in fleet. There’s an abundance of next-model-year OEM fleet meetings, new-model intros, and industry conferences, which offer ample opportunities to “talk fleet” with the movers and shakers of our industry. If you want to know what's happening in the fleet market, you need to talk with fleet managers -- lots of them.

Senior management exerts intense pressure on fleet managers to control and/or reduce vehicle acquisition and operating expenses. To accomplish this, a fleet managers can pursue three different cost-control strategies — cost savings, cost deferral, or cost avoidance. In order to implement a successful cost-control strategy you need to institutionalize the mechanisms to curb money-wasting behaviors.

To be successful on a sourcing team, you need to be open-minded about exploring all available service channels and partners. However, open-minded doesn’t mean being open-headed. You must listen and entertain new ideas, but also temper such a practice and attitude with pragmatism and knowledge.